VIJAYAWADA: In the pharmaceutical sector, AP has an advantage over others given the fact that it is already considered a pharma hub of the country, said several speakers at the valedictory of Global Investors Summit 2023 in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
Laurus Labs founder and CEO Satyanarayana Chava described AP as the bulk drug capital of the country and could well become the bulk drug capital of the world. Several large API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) units existed in the State for long now.
Hetero Group Managing Director Vamsi Krishna Bandi said post-Covid pandemic, more countries are looking at India as a partner of choice in pharmaceutical sector, and AP is ideally placed to take advantage because of a well-established ecosystem. “We will continue to expand our presence in AP. We will be investing about `1,000 crore in AP over the next two years to grow our pharmaceutical and specialty business. This will generate employment for 3,000 people,” he said.
Satish Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said AP offers best opportunities to the pharma sector and it will play an important role in the journey of Indian pharma sector from today’s $45 billion market to $130 billion by 2030. “The real value, moving from volume to value will come from innovation. For example, med tech zone has done well. I hope AP can show the way.” he said
Suchitra K Ella, Chairperson of CII Southern Region and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International Limited, said the CII is keen to work with the AP government in creating the vision document of the districts for the next 25 years, particularly in women’s empowerment and ready to work to create curriculum for girl students with emphasis on empowerment.
Sergio Lee, Director and Group Head (India Operations), Apache and Hilltop Group, explaining their presence in the State since 2006, said they have decided to continue to invest in AP another $100 million with a potential of generating 10,000 jobs in Tirupati. Gajanan Nabar of Nova Air, Vineet Mittal of Avaada Group, Santhanam B of Saint Gobain Asia-Pacific and India also spoke.